


Said in the Morning

by ladygray99



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Episode Tag, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-23
Updated: 2010-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-06 14:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladygray99/pseuds/ladygray99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don left too many things unsaid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Said in the Morning

**Author's Note:**

> This is post ep for Charlie Don't Surf. If you haven't seen the episode this fic won't make much sense anyway.

Don went to the door after getting tired of the persistent knocking, praying it wasn't Robin. He just wasn't in the mood to talk about his feelings with her. He also wasn't in the mood to explain why he was drinking heavily on a school night.

He opened the apartment door. Charlie stood there looking serious. "Hey Chuck. What can I do for you?"

"I'm sorry about Nathan." Charlie said quietly.

Don felt his gut churn. He tried to shrug. "Yeah, well."

Charlie held out a full bottle of Johnnie Walker Black. "No Don, I'm sorry about Nathan."

Don took the bottle and motioned Charlie in. Don found a couple of glasses in his small, frightfully modern, and painfully underused kitchen. He poured for each of them.

"Absent friends?" Charlie asked raising his glass. Don knock back his shot and Charlie sipped his. Don vaguely wondered when Charlie had learned to drink whisky without wincing or choking or tears running down his face.

Don poured out another shot. "You know I used to think about him at the weirdest times. I'd be in the middle of a fire fight and something funny he said when we were sixteen would pop into my head. Or I'd be in a crowd and whip around absolutely sure I'd heard his voice or caught him out of the corner of my eye. I didn't even know he was back in the area. I would have gone out and seen him."

"Really?" Charlie questioned.

Don knew it was a lie. "No, probably not."

Don drank a couple of more shots. "We would say the stupidest shit to each other that summer. We'd make out for hours then say stupid, fucking, teenaged shit."

"Like what?"

"Like 'this doesn't mean we're gay'" Charlie snorted into his own drink. "Yeah, I know."

"You two were young."

"Doesn't mean we weren't idiots."

Charlie shrugged. Don let himself wallow in memories he'd spent twenty years trying to forget. Him and Nathan huddled together in scraps of shade, a hundred and two out, too hot to touch but touching anyways.

"Why didn't you tell on us?" Don suddenly asked.

Charlie downed his drink. "Why would I?"

"Well you spilled every other secret I had and it was perfect blackmail material."

"Maybe I had secrets of my own." Charlie said.

"Do I want to know?"

Charlie chuckled. "You've got your problems, Don and I've got mine."

"Fair enough."

Don took another few drinks as did Charlie.

"Did you love him?" Charlie asked suddenly.

Don actually thought about it. "As much as you can love a guy who won't shut up at seventeen." Charlie just nodded.

Don slipped into memory. Nathan had shut up once. That one afternoon after graduation when they were alone in the house. Nathan hadn't said a word when the two of them undressed and began soft slow fumblings. He'd even been silent after when they lay there in the heat, sleepy and a little scared. Don always had a funny feeling that was the first time he made love and always wished he'd been a little better at it.

"It might have been better for us if you had told someone, Chuck. We might of…I don't know, never mind."

"You left a little too much unsaid, didn't you?"

Don wondered when Charlie had gotten perceptive. "Not too much, everything. We never said a fucking thing that actually needed to be said."

Charlie poured them both one more drink. "In the morning Don, just you and me, down at the beach, you can say the things that need to be said."

Don nodded slowly. "Yeah, in the morning."


End file.
